Our Comments for the BLM’s Gate Canyon Project

Nine Mile Canyon Coalition Scoping Comments Wells Draw Road Amendment: Gate Canyon DOI-BLM-UT-G010-2023-0026-EA

Purpose and Need:

The purpose and need section must disclose that the primary purpose of the project is to facilitate the hauling of Uinta Waxy crude oil from the Uinta Basin to Wellington, and the subsequent expansion of drilling efforts in the Basin. The project proponents have stated that is the case. There may be other stated purposes, but none of those would be driving this project absent the wants of the oil industry.

Plan Conformance:

The project must be a pre-emptory rejection by BLM for plan non-conformance. If the proposal is not summarily dismissed, BLM must undertake plan amendments to accommodate it.

• As per the Vernal RMP, Gate Canyon is in VRM Management Class III. BLM VRM Handbook 8410-1 states: The objective of this class is to partially retain the existing character of the landscape. The level of change to the characteristic landscape should be moderate. Management activities may attract attention but should not dominate the view of the casual observer. Changes should repeat the basic elements found in the predominant natural features of the characteristic landscape. The proposed project will fill in the canyon, have up to 200 foot vertical cuts and fill slopes, cut down cliffs, remove the sinuosity of the route and generally alter the landscape character. The casual visitor driving the proposed road will probably not even recognize they are in a canyon. The current key observation points (KOPs) will be buried under hundreds of feet of fill. The new KOPs are currently floating up to 200 feet in the air. The project as proposed fails to meet BLM VRM Management Class criteria.

• In June of 1989, BLM established the Nine Mile Canyon Backcountry Byway, covering the route from Wellington to Myton. BLM identified the route as Type I—Roads are paved or have an all weather surface and have grades that are negotiable by a normal touring car. These roads are usually narrow, slow speed, secondary roads. In 1991, BLM Director Cy Jamison came on site and officially dedicated the Nine Mile Canyon Backcountry Byway. In 1995 BLM approved The Nine Mile Canyon Special Recreation and Cultural Management Area Plan. This plan states: The principal management objective for the planning area is to protect and preserve cultural resources. The other objectives are to protect, preserve and enhance the natural character, inspirational value and scenic quality of the area while optimizing recreational and interpretive opportunities, including the provision of a safe recreational environment. The 1995 plan was subsequently incorporated by reference into both the Price and Vernal RMPs. Both Price and Vernal identified a Nine Mile Canyon Special Recreation Management Area. According to BLM Handbook H-8320-1; An SRMA is managed to protect and enhance a targeted set of activities, experiences, benefits and desired RSCs. The proposed project cannot meet the “protect” and “enhance” planning objectives. It would also radically change the nature of the Byway. We question whether a BLM Field Office can so modify a Backcountry Byway decision/designation made by the BLM Directorate.

Issues for Analysis

Air Quality:

The Uinta Basin is a nonattainment area under the Clean Air Act. Nine Mile Canyon is part of the Uinta Basin and forms a sub-airshed within the Basin. Nine Mile Canyon is a narrow deep canyon prone to winter time inversions. There is currently no monitoring for criteria pollutants in Nine Mile Canyon. The analysis of this project should include the following:

• Impacts to the air quality in the Uinta Basin generally from current and projected production.

• Monitoring for PM-10 and PM-2.5 within Nine Mile Canyon. Of particular concern is the soot from diesel truck exhaust and its potential deposition on rock art sites. There is also concern for human health of visitors visiting sites in close proximity to the road.

Green House Gas Emissions:

Follow Executive Order and CEQ guidance for GHG associated with this project, including the proponents projected production in the Uinta Basin.

Water Quality:

There have been multiple instances of oil industry trucks crashing and spilling in streams, including the Price River, and Willow Creek and Strawberry Rivers. What are the risks of such incidents in Nine Mile Canyon given that the canyon is further from emergency spill response, limited access and the fact there are no dams or diversions to prevent spills from reaching the Green River?

General Safety:

Please disclose the accident history for semi-trucks connected with Uinta Basin oil production in general and crude oil haulers in particular. What are the risks/effects of moving this traffic off of the US Hwy system to Nine Mile Canyon given that Nine Mile Canyon is more remote, narrower with more blind curves, has more tourists stopping in and along the roadway, lacks cell phone coverage, is less frequently patrolled and is further from emergency response?

Natural Quiet:

This issue is critical to issues of recreation and cultural resources discussed below. It also has direct and indirect effects on wildlife. To our knowledge there has been no inventory or monitoring of natural quiet in Nine Mile Canyon. The common experience is the place enjoys much natural quiet, especially at night. Even in the daytime, one can often experience 20 minutes to an hour without artificial intrusive noise. We suggest BLM consult with the National Park Service Regional Office in Denver as they are leading experts in this field.

Wildlife:

Wildlife abounds in Nine Mile Canyon. Along with the ubiquitous deer herds, it is home to most of the creatures we would consider native to the habitat and region. There is a concern for direct mortality from vehicle collisions. When Soldier Creek Coal Mine was in operation and hauling coal, the Soldier Creek Road from the mine to Wellington was reported by UDWR as having the highest road mortality on mule deer in the state. What is the expected mortality given that oil trucks will be more frequent and traversing three times the mileage of the same deer habitat? Noise/natural quiet is an issue for wildlife as well. These negative effects are well documented in the literature and must be considered.

ACEC:

Nine Mile Canyon is within the Vernal Field Office Nine Mile Canyon ACEC. The R&I values for this ACEC are Archaeological, specifically Fremont, Ute, and Archaic archaeology, and unspecified Special Plant Species. The Nine Mile Canyon Road traverses the Vernal Field Office ACEC, and the Price Field Office Nine Mile Canyon ACEC. The Price Field Office identifies archaeology as the only R&I value. The NEPA for this project must address the impacts to the ACECs and their R&I values. Strangely, neither RMP provides specific management direction for the R&I values, they merely list unrelated activities that would be allowed to occur.

Wild and Scenic Rivers:

Both the Price and Vernal RMPs identify Nine Mile Creek as eligible, not suitable for Wild and Scenic River designation. As an eligible river, ORVs were identified. While the question of WSR designation is settled for the time being, the ORVs identified still exist and the impacts to those resource values are still subject to NEPA analysis. Both RMPs identified archaeological resources and scenic resources as ORVs. Additionally, Price identified history as an ORV. It is a mystery why the ORVs are different as the stream meanders back and forth across a county boundary line. It is also odd that both offices identified a scenic ORV for WSR, but not as an R&I value for the overlaying ACECs.

VRM:

See discussion of VRM under Plan Conformance, above. A project of this magnitude in Gate Canyon needs visual simulation in addition to the standard contrast rating working sheet if it is to be pursued. It is our opinion there is no way the VRM Class III standards in Gate Canyon could be met by this project. This project is worthy of a full, project specific, VRM analysis. Vernal and Price both identified a Scenic ORV in Wild and Scenic inventory. Both failed to recognize a Scenic component in their ACECs, yet identified SRMAs with important scenic values and chose to assign management Classes of VRM III and IV. This simply makes no sense. VRM also relates to Recreation and Cultural issues discussed below.

Recreation:

Please see the discussion of recreation in the Plan Conformance section above. The Price RMP identifies the SRMA as being in the Roaded Natural and Semi-Primitive Non-Motorized ROS Classes. The Roaded Natural Class applies to the Nine Mile Road Corridor. The Price RMP, in addition to incorporating the 1995 SRCMA Plan identifies the following as primary recreation activities in the canyon:

• Rock Art viewing

• Archaeological site visitation

• Driving for the pleasure

• Historic site visitation

• Hiking

• Mountain biking

• Social gathering

• Historical reenactments

• Recreational learning

• Wildlife viewing

The Price RMP further identifies the following experiences as targeted outcomes:

• Achievement/Stimulation

• Autonomy – enjoying exploring on one’s own

• Family togetherness

• Learning about nature

• Enjoyment of natural settings

• Introspection – contemplating human relationship with the land

• Exercise/Physical Fitness

• Escape Physical Pressure

• Escape personal/social pressures

• Teaching Others

• Sense of Place and history

• Self-awareness and reliance

• Nostalgia/family heritage

The analysis must address the project effect on all these planning objectives.

Despite the ROS class being Roaded Natural, currently visitors enjoy a fair degree of solitude and natural quiet. People get away with stopping on the travel surface and wandering on the roadway due to the low traffic volumes. Nine Mile Canyon is a popular destination for school groups from grade school through college. They are able to visit sites in close proximity to the road without fear of death. The traffic volume and noise under the proposed action would make these school tours and general public visitation less safe and enjoyable. The increased traffic volume would move the setting from Roaded Natural more to the rural and urban side of the ROPS spectrum, thus violating the setting prescription found in the RMPs.

Cultural:

Nine Mile Canyon is a special and remarkable cultural landscape. The landscape setting is critical to the cultural resources of the canyon. It is one of the rare places where it is easy to appreciate the relationship between and among sites, see the relationships between rock art with habitation, farming and hunting sites. We are hard pressed to find a place where so much history and archaeology is concentrated in such a small area. There are hundreds of archaeological sites either listed or nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. There are hundreds more eligible archaeological and historical sites present. The Price to Myton Freight Route is itself historic. The lower sections of Gate Canyon, in the wash bottom and following the canyon meanders is one of the few places where a traveler can experience what the road was like in its heyday, from 1886 to about 1910 when it was the most heavily trafficked road in eastern Utah.

According to 36 CFR 800.5, an adverse effect is found when an undertaking may alter, directly or indirectly, any of the characteristics of a historic property that qualify the property for inclusion in the National Register in a manner that would diminish the integrity of the property’s location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling or association. Examples of adverse effects include: Introduction of visual, atmospheric, or audible elements that diminish the integrity of the property’s significant historic features.

Please see previous discussions of air quality, VRM and Natural Quiet as these are issues relevant to site settings and associations . The issue of settings and site context must be analyzed for every listed or eligible for listing site.

Alternatives

Over the years we have seen many different proposals for moving crude oil out of the Uinta Basin. Many of these were put forward by proponents of the Gate Canyon Road Project:

• Improvement of US Hwy. 40 to better accommodate truck traffic.

• Improvement of US Hwy 191 over Indian Canyon to facilitate trucking.

• Refining the product within the Uinta Basin so only finished products are shipped.

• Construction of the Book Cliffs road to I-70.

• Various pipeline proposals to the Wasatch Front, Carbon County and I-70, with heated pipelines.

• Partial refining in the Basin to lower the flow point temperature.

• And most recently, an already approved rail line from Myton to connect with railroads near Helper, Utah. We note that there has already been $20 million of public funds invested in the permitting for the railroad.

All of these have been looked at on an ad hoc, individual basis with very little analysis given to the issue of the best way to move crude oil out of the Basin. Meanwhile, there has been considerable public investment in improving US Highway 40, primarily to facilitate oil tanker trucks. There has also been public money invested in US Highway 191 for the same purpose. This EA should examine all these alternatives to the proposed action as they all seem to meet the purpose and need for the project.

NINE MILE CANYON COALITION

/s/ J. Michael Hansen

J. MICHAEL HANSEN, Chair